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Mountain Men

The first non-Natives to explore the West, whose main job was trapping beavers and hunting fur-bearing animals for companies, with exploration happening incidentally to their work.

Homestead Act of 1862

A law that allowed farmers to settle on land for free if they improved it for five years, eventually giving away nearly 10% of U.S. land even though many settlers failed.

Boom towns

Settlements that appeared suddenly and grew rapidly due to discoveries of valuable resources like gold, silver, copper, and guano, with some surviving and others becoming ghost towns.

cowboy

An American archetype based on workers whose real job involved low-paying labor for large financial interests rather than the romantic image often portrayed.

cattle drive

The process of moving large herds of cattle from grazing lands to railheads, which was the main task of cowboys.

Oregon Trail

The most famous wagon trail used by early settlers, stretching from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley.

Range Wars

Conflicts between farmers and ranchers who competed over land, water, and space in the West.

The James Gang

A group of outlaws made up of former Civil War guerillas who continued raiding long after the war ended.

mechanized agriculture

The use of machines in farming that helped end the era of small farmers and open-range cattle ranching.

feedlot system

A method of raising cattle by keeping them enclosed with barbed wire and feeding them intensively in one place.

Transcontinental Railroad

A railroad completed in 1869 that ran over 1,900 miles and connected the United States from coast to coast by train.

Sioux War

A conflict from 1854–1877 between the U.S. Army and the Sioux over control of the Black Hills of South Dakota after gold was discovered there.

Battle of Little Bighorn

A major Native American victory where Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces inflicted the worst defeat suffered by the U.S. Army during the Indian wars.

Comanche Wars

A series of conflicts from 1836–1875 that ended with the Comanche being defeated by the U.S. Army and forced onto reservations.

Quanah Parker

The last great leader of the Comanche, who continued fighting the U.S. Army until 1875 despite being half white.

Apache War

The final military resistance by Native Americans, led by Geronimo, which lasted until 1886 and marked the end of Indian freedom.

Reservation System

A government policy that forced Native Americans onto reservations with the goal of making them farm and live like whites while erasing much of their culture.

Wounded Knee

A massacre in 1890 where U.S. troops killed around 300 Sioux in South Dakota during an attempt to disarm them amid fears of an uprising.

Buffalo Bill

The stage name of William Cody, who turned his frontier experience into a career as a famous showman after the frontier closed.

Wild Wes

The mythic and romanticized image of the American West created through Buffalo Bill’s shows that still shapes how the West is remembered today.